Your support makes a difference
We’re proud to present our 2020 Annual Report marking our 39th year of operation. Below, we’ve provided brief recaps of a few of our most urgent priorities last year, including successfully advocating for increased federal funding for conservation; fighting to shut down abusive tax shelters; developing new resources to drive climate-smart conservation; and improving lives through community-centered conservation.
As you read through this report, please note that membership dues and other related income currently account for only 13% of the full cost of the Alliance’s work to advance voluntary private land conservation nationwide. We rely heavily on the generosity of committed individuals, companies and institutions to fill the remaining gaps. Thank you, most sincerely, to all the donors and partners who made our work possible in 2020!
Jamey French
Last year challenged our community in ways we never could have anticipated. The pandemic forced land trusts across the country to figure out how to continue functioning and serving their communities without jeopardizing the health of their employees or jeopardizing the financial health of their organizations.
At the same time, more Americans searched for local places to recreate and spend time with loved ones outdoors. This led to large increases in visitation to land trust preserves. This burden further strained the capacity of land trusts.
The Land Trust Alliance helped land trusts across the nation grapple with these challenges and many more. We responded to rapidly evolving needs by providing timely information, support, training and connections among conservation practitioners. Visits to our online Learning Center jumped 50% as members used our crisis management resources and worked through new challenges in a discussion forum supported by our experts.
Our virtual Advocacy Days was not just a first for us; it was one of the first-ever “virtual fly-in” advocacy events on Capitol Hill — and more people participated than ever before. In the fall, we hosted a virtual Rally, our signature national land conservation conference, that educated and inspired a record-breaking 3,774 individuals.
Never has the value of the Alliance — as a convenor, as a source of expert information and as a tireless advocate for land conservation — been so clear.
Andrew Bowman
In 2020, a new wave of people gained an appreciation for the importance of conserved lands as they sought time outdoors for respite from the pandemic. And each day’s news cycle made it increasingly clear that land is a critical tool to address other major challenges our society faces. Every acre a land trust stewards reduces greenhouse gases and mitigates the worst effects of climate change. Protected forests and wetlands make communities more resilient to severe weather events. Family farms and ranches provide sustainable food for their communities. Additionally, preserved lands offer spaces for people of all backgrounds and abilities to find common ground around a shared loved of their local lands.
There is an urgent need for a more rapid rate of conservation to meet these challenges, and the land trust community is uniquely positioned to help. Together, we’ve set an audacious goal of protecting an additional 60 million acres by 2030 as part of the broader 30x30 goal recently embraced by the federal government. To achieve this goal, the Alliance will secure greater incentives and rewards for voluntary land conservation in America. In short, we will ensure each land trust has the funding, tools and resources it needs to continue accelerating the pace of land conservation.
Together, we will keep gaining ground.
"I hope you know how much [the Alliance]'s support of our organization has meant over the years ... [the Alliance]'s support has helped KPC expand its ability to protect more land, engage a broader and more diverse public, and work with community partners
TOGETHER, SAVING LAND FOR ALL
Founded in 1982, the Land Trust Alliance is a national land conservation nonprofit organization that works to save the places people need and love by strengthening voluntary private land conservation across America.
The Land Trust Alliance represents nearly 1,000 nonprofits and their 4.6 million supporters, 207,000 volunteers and more than 6.2 million annual preserve visitors. Our nation’s land trusts, together, have conserved over 56 million acres of land.
Increased federal funding for conservation
In August, we celebrated a historic victory: full and dedicated funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund. With the passage of the Great American Outdoors Act, LWCF will be permanently funded at $900 million per year, a level attained only twice since 1964. This was a truly bipartisan victory for conservation, passing 310-107 in the U.S. House of Representatives and 73-25 in the Senate.
October brought more good news with the signing of the America’s Conservation Enhancement Act, which increased authorized appropriated funding for the North American Wetlands Conservation Act to $60 million per year and reauthorized critical conservation programs, including the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Act and the Chesapeake Bay Program. We celebrate our increased advocacy efforts, in collaboration with our land trust ambassadors and conservation partners!
Shutting Down Abusive Tax Shelters
The federal tax incentive for conservation easements drives the protection of 2,000-2,500 places each year; however, it is threatened by bad actors who are abusing the system for profit by claiming outsized deductions. In August, the Senate Finance Committee released a report that specifically mentions the Alliance’s advocacy efforts on this issue and demands an immediate end to the abuse of conservation easements. We secured bipartisan support for our legislative remedy, the Charitable Conservation Easement Program Integrity Act, but it was blocked in final December negotiations by a few lawmakers. To be clear, we made tremendous progress and our efforts to enact this legislation continues in the 117th Congress.
Meanwhile, after years of briefing administration officials about the problem, the IRS and U.S. Department of Justice brought multiple cases against those involved in fraudulent tax schemes and could bring hundreds more. Bad actors are on notice that the IRS “will continue to vigorously litigate their cases to the fullest extent possible.”
New Resources Drive Climate-Smart Conservation
Launched in 2017, our Land and Climate Program continues to help land trusts address climate change. In 2020, we hired an energy and climate policy advisor to promote natural climate solutions and we launched pilot programs to help land trusts take advantage of voluntary carbon offset markets. Not only are land trusts now more comfortable talking about climate, 80% of those surveyed in 2020 said that half or more of their coming projects were driven by climate considerations. The land trust community is well-positioned to contribute to the Biden administration’s greenhouse gas emission targets while also working to conserve 30% of the nation’s land base by 2030.
Improving Lives Through Community-Centered Conservation
The best conservation engages the entire community and benefits all people. Amid 2020’s national awakening about systemic racism, the Alliance committed to bringing greater diversity, equity and inclusion to our work. In 2019, we held Common Ground conversations with a diverse array of individuals and organizations about how conservation can help communities thrive. In 2020, we used that learning to build a roadmap to advance community-centered conservation by cultivating new partnerships, improving DEI services for land trusts, bringing an equity lens to our grantmaking, connecting with new audiences and modeling best practices at the Alliance.
We note with pride that more than 100 land trusts joined us in making bold public statements against systemic racism. We featured diverse voices and inclusive engagement workshops at Rally and announced a second paid fellowship through our Scholars for Conservation Leadership Program. This program, which we hope to expand with your support, is a career and leadership development program for students interested in pursuing careers in natural resource management and conservation — and who represent minority and underrepresented identities in these fields.
